“I’ve learned a lot in the last couple years - enough to know that it is possible to take something deep and personal and unperformable and bring it to a group of people. It requires the right audience, the right venue, the right equipment, and the right frame of mind. But it also requires time to rehearse, and money to pay for musicians, and it requires that I let go of the writing life for months at a time both before and after a tour (because the stuff I write after a tour is written by a performer and I don’t do that well) and it requires that I keep friendships loose enough and accept that when I return from a tour, tour is all my friends are gonna wanna talk about. And it requires that I scramble around for press and hate myself for it, and it requires that my ego balloon and that I go to the gym and buy synthesizers and guitar pedals and worry about my outfits. 

If it were possible to survive on music without touring for a while, I think I would like that. I do enjoy performing - it’s invigorating and challenging and I get to meet a lot of nice people - but at a time like now, in which I’m writing a new album, the prospect of performance is terrifying. The little sound castle I’m producing here will need to be dismantled, chopped up, painted and sold. I’ll have to push it out into the world and watch it turn from relief to desperation.”

— DM Stith

(Source: alexandercomana)